DARK CORRIDORS

Breaking the silence on child abuse

Tulir, a Chennai-based NGO has been doing pioneering work
in bringing to attention the widespread sexual abuse of
children -- as high as 42 per cent in one Chennai survey.
In 2006, Tulir was honoured with an International Award.
Ambujam Anantharaman
has more.

Chennai (WFS) - Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and its prevention have become major problems in
all countries, particularly in India, with the absence
of specific laws against CSA and the lack of awareness
on the subject. CSA can occur both within families,
social groups and in underprivileged situations, such
as in orphanages. The abuse of children by tourists
also falls under CSA.

A disclosure made by a child about abuse during
a Tulir session is brought to the notice of the
parents or teachers, depending on the situation.

While correction and punishment are ways to tackle the
problem, it is increasingly felt that prevention is a
far better method. This is because of two reasons: the
difficulty of bringing CSA offenders to book; and
tragically, the virtual impossibility of erasing the
scars left on victims.

In India, there are several organisations working with
child rights, but only a few, such as Chennai-based
Tulir, that focus on CSA. Tulir is Tamil for the first
tender leaves of a plant - symbolising children and
belief in the resilience and resurgence of human
activity. In 2006, Tulir was honoured with an
International Award by the Women's World Summit
Foundation on the occasion of the World Day for
Prevention of Child Abuse (November 19) in Geneva.

The Tulir Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child
Sexual Abuse, which began in 2002, is the inspiration
of its Executive Director, Vidya Reddy. Reddy's
experience as a volunteer with Childline, a 24-hour
helpline for children in Chennai, made her aware of
the many cases of CSA and the need for an organisation
specifically devoted to the issue.

A meeting with Lois Engelbrecht, an American citizen
born and brought up in India, was the catalyst. Lois
had set up similar centres in the Philippines, Vietnam
and Malaysia. Thus was born Tulir. Tulir's main
activities are advocacy, awareness and preventive
education. It takes up research projects and, on
occasion, does psycho-social therapeutic intervention
in cases of CSA.

File illustration: Farzana Cooper.

The major programmes of the organisation are with
children. Over the last three years, Tulir has covered
around 40 private schools in Chennai. It also runs a
project with municipal corporation schools.

According to Reddy, a typical programme in a school
begins with an orientation for parents, proceeds to
intensive workshops for teachers and, finally, targets
the children, who are only taught in groups. As the
programme is exclusively for primary school students,
the words 'sex' or 'abuse' are never used. 'Personal
safety' is the slogan. The purpose is to encourage
children to speak out if they feel uncomfortable,
unsafe or confused when an adult touches them.
Children always have the right instinct and know the
difference between a friendly pat on the back and an
unwarranted touch.

If a disclosure is made by a child about abuse during
a Tulir session, it is brought to the notice of the
parents or teachers, depending on the situation.

Reddy elaborates, "Teaching children involves
understanding psycho-emotional concepts. The tools we
use include leaflets, posters and other special
materials that children can understand. An audio book
will soon be released by 'Karadi Tales'. All the
material is trilingual, in Hindi, English and Tamil."

Reddy is assisted in her work by four youngsters -
Alankar, Vipin, Nancy and Madhavan - all from the
Madras School of Social Work.

In the beginning, the group worked on just 'love and
fresh air', says Reddy. It was in the
second year of their operations that they received
funding from Save the Children, Sweden , for a
research project. Since then, they have been receiving
funds from Action Aid, UNICEF, Save the Children, UK,
for their domestic child workers project in West
Bengal.

In 2005, Tulir undertook a research project on
'Prevalence and dynamics of child sexual abuse among
school-going children in Chennai'. The revelations
were shocking. Out of a sample of 2,211 child
participants, 939 or 42 per cent had undergone some
form of child abuse.

Tulir has worked with several organisations such as
Intervention Society for the Prevention of Child
Abuse, Chicago, and Terres Des Hommes (People of the
Earth) that works across Europe in child rights. In
India, Tulir has been associated with Action for the
Rights of the Child, Pune, which translated their
awareness materials into Marathi. The Karnataka State
Council for Child Welfare has done the same in
Kannada.

Tulir also offers preventive education offered is for the benefit of
professionals, doctors, police and lawyers and, most
importantly, the child and those around the child.
Tulir is in the process of bringing out a small
booklet for the police on CSA.

Coming to the role of governmental agencies, Reddy
says that the Chennai Municipal Corporation has been
extremely cooperative and so have the Chennai police.
However, she would like the police to have a separate
Child Abuse Prevention Cell to investigate cases
because 'a child victim of a crime is very different
from an adult victim'. At the national level, she is
emphatic that the age-old practice of combining women
and child issues has to be stopped. Organisations like
hers want a special ministry for children.

There is no law against child sexual abuse in India,
Reddy points out. A draft legislation (called the
Offences Against the Child Bill) formulated by the
Ministry of Women and Child Development has been
circulated and child rights groups are hoping the Bill
will be taken up in the next session of Parliament.

Tulir has undertaken a new research programme to look
at the CSA issue from a different perspective with the
advent of technology. As a result of the Internet, the
entire profile of abuse has undergone a paradigm
shift. Viewing child pornography on the Internet gives
impetus to abuse. Then again, children who participate
in Internet chat rooms are at risk. Individuals,
pretending to be youngsters, befriend innocent
children and later entice them into actual meetings
outside.

Tulir may just be touching the fringes of a major
societal problem but hopes to tackle a menace shrouded
in sordid silence. (Women's Feature Service)

Ambujam Anantharaman05 April 2007

Ambujam Anantharaman writes on development issues and
is based in Chennai.

meenakshi srinivasan
Thank you for bringing a "dark" subject to light. as much as it may seem far fetched, the lack of basic underwear for young girls make it easier for CSA to occur mor easily. When I worked in Chennai in the late eighties, it was common to find children without underwear. We used to buy the cheap platform kind and donate. Menstruating girls need menstrual cups and all humans need sanitary toilets that are safe from "predators" and have water to flush with.

April 06 2007, 5:51 AM ·
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tapsi tiwari
This article is enlightening! the psychological impact of such nefarious acts on children is long lasting and hamper their full growth. this is a sensitive issue and NGO's like Tulir should be encouraged.

April 08 2007, 1:49 AM ·
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ravindran
Child sex abuse has been there, but only on a limited scale before globalization and liberalization. Escalation of crimes of this sort is the result of over commercialization of everything.

October 20 2008, 9:01 AM ·
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Santosh K. Mishra
I apprciate the way of sensitive approach by which Tulir tries to reach children with a view to help them protect from the dangers of sexual abuse. It's really incredible.